
Class I 'sj2i85'] 
Book •. J.63t4^ 



Author 



Title 



Imprint 



409181 SPO 



DESTINY 



A POEM: 



PRONOUNCED BEFORE THE 



ASSOCIATE CHAPTERS 



OF THE 



DELTA PHI, 



MONDAY EVENING, JUNE 29th, 1846 



Jy 

e)^UEL AFIELD SMITH, 



I-UBLlSUEiJ BY DELTA PHI CONVENTION. 



Nctu^lTortt . 

JOS. A. FRAETAS, PRINTER. 
7 Spiuce-Sireei 



184b. 



TSz SSI 



CORRESPONDENCE. 

Neiv-ifork, July l$t, 1846 
Mr. Howard Crosby. 

Dear Sir : 

The undersigned have the pleasure of informing you, 

that on Tuesday, 30th instant, at a meeting of delegates of the 

Delta Phi, in Convention assembled, it was unanimously resolved, 

that copies of the Oration and Poem, delivered before them on the 

evening previous, be requested for publication 

Yours truly, 

FRANCIS VAN RENSSELAER, 
(Signed) THEO. F. McCURDY, 

J. WINTHROP CHANLER, 
JOHN D. C. BLUXOME. 



Ashton, July 10, 1846. 

Gentlemen: 

I have had the honor to receive your communication 
of the first instant informing me of the resolution of the Delta Phi, 
requesting a copy of the oration, lately delivered before them, for 
publication. It is with regret that I am obliged to recede from 
my former consent, as given without due deliberation. An oration, 
•which is delivered in a Gothic Chapel, before a brilliant audience, at 
the 'witching time of night' assisted by the sweetest music, may, 
from the nature of these accompaniments, find favor, while the 
same oration would make a sorry figure, when furnished with the 
immortality of type. This being my candid opinion in the present 
instance, I beg leave to decline the great honor conferred on me. I 
cannot refrain, however, from tendering my sincere acknowledg- 
ments to my brethren of the Delta Phi, for the high compliment 
they have been pleased to bestow upon me. With sentiments of 
the greatest regard, I am, gentlemen, 

Your obedient servant, 

HOWARD CROSBY 
Messrs. Van Rensselaer, 



Messrs. Van Rensselaer, ) „ 
McCuRDY, &c I Comrr„urr 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



New-York, July 1st, 184<i. 
Mr. E. Delafield Smith. 

Dear Sir: 

The undersigned have the pleasure of informing you, 
that on Tuesday, 30th instant, at a meeting of delegates of the Delta 
Plii, in Convention assembled, it was unanimously resolved, that 
copies of the Oration and Poem, delivered before them on the evening 
previous, be requested for publication. 
Yours truly, 

FRANCIS VAN RENSSELAER, 1 
.Wn.^ THEO.F.McCURDY, 
.>7gnea, j wiNTHROP CHANLER, f ^"^ ^^ 

JOHN D. C. BLUXOME. j 



New-York, July id, 1846. 

Gentlemen : 

I am very happy in acceding to the request of the 
Convention, and only wish that the poem were more worthy so un- 
expected a testimonial. Let me hope that its faults may be covered 
by the kindness which occasioned the appointment of so young :i 
member as poet of the Delta Phi, and which secured to his effort, 
the most flattering attention and the most gratifying applause. 

Respectfully yours, 

E. DELAFIELD SMITH. 
To the Committee. 



DESTINY, 



• Oh' heav'n ! 'if if be thns, and thou. 
All uoi a madness and a mockery * 



£S0U. PtiOM. VlNC. 510 



DESTINY. 



'The covenant wi(h human kind 

VVhicli God has made — the chains of Fate 
He found himself and iheinhalli twined.' 

The Loves op the Angels 



When on the shrunk and shrivel'd brow, 

Which age haih frosted o'er with care. 
Life hangs, like fruit upon the bough, 

When winter's snows have cluster'd there, 
And the deep soul, with nervous force. 

Rolls on to meet the spirit- sea. 
So soon to break its fetter'd course 

And leap — exulting to be free, — 
Oh then, more solemn than the dirge 
Which murmurs at the ocean's verge, 

Fs ev'ry hoarse sepulchral word 
That trembling o'er the flood of years — 

Tho' by a frozen bosom heard — 
Dissolves that bosom into tears ! 

Ah yes — for aged care's relief, 

There is a sympathetic grief 
Whose sunny radiance softly plays 

Upon that tide of time and care — 
Whose depths behold remember'd days 

In sad profusion gather'd there— 



10 DESTINY. 

While Thought will smile or shniik agliii»t 
At scenes, long laded in the past, 

\\ hose inem'iies bring their varied store 
To where the soul is freed forever, 

As all the plants that lin'd its shore 
Crowd to the delta of a river. (1) 



Tho' deep and dreary is the gloom 
That shrouds the hoary sage, for whom 
E'en joy but robs his soul of rest 
And leaves it throbbing in the breast, — 

Ah yet, the heart has deeper strings 
Which murmur forth a song of sadness. 

When thrown by sorrow's raven wings. 
Dark shadows veil the brow of gladness. 

Until, like llow'rets, young and frail, 
Which droop in darkness, wan and pale. 

No sun the misanthrope may share : 
He speaks — there's poison in his breath : 

His blighted cheek, his aspect, wear 
The pallor and the hue of death ! — 

What pity that young manhood turns 
So coldly from his kith and kind ! 

But ah — full oft an altar burns 
Whose light is radiance from the mind. 

And genius, like a soft perfume 
That bids a fainting figure rise, 

Will rouse the darkest child of gloom 
And ' lend enchantment' to his eyes. 

Then gentle sympathy, whose voice 
As sweetly as a seraph sings. 

Entwines a wreath of bridal choice 
That o'er his path she fondly flings. 



Thus, for the aged and the young, 
When victims of relentless gloom. 



U E S T ] i\ V . 11 

The homage of the heart is flung; - 

The roses of affection bloom. 
But if a sly and serpent sorrow 

Is creeping, coiling on the heart, 
When neither eyes nor aspect borrow 

Tints from the poison of the smart, 
Nor Intellect, with delicate brush. 

Which in the hues of lieav'n she dips. 
May mingle beauty in the blush 

Whose tinges touch the cheek and lips, — 
Oh then that serpent may destroy 

Each wild creation Fancy charms. 
And murder ev'ry rapturous joy 

That seeks a refuge in its arms, 
And where may look the victim — where — 
Say rather, to what fount repair. 
Whose magic waters charm distress 
And give to grief a loveliness. 



Thus many a youth at manhood's prime. 

And thus, perchance, this heart of ours. 
Looks back upon the sea of time 

And sorrows o'er neglected hours. 
And mourns that many a light skiff — laden 

With sonnets to some blue-ey'd maiden. 
And with a thousand honey'd rhymes — 

Sad relics of poetic crimes, — 
Hath ventur'd o'er life's billow dark, 

Alas — to meet few sunny smiles ; 
And like the rosy, perfum'd bark 

That leaves the Maldivian isles 
To soothe the spirit of the storm 

With flow'rs in which that bark is derk'd- 
Tho' often, o'er its fragrant form, 

Breathe.« the cold ni2;ht-air of neglect, 



12 D E S T I N V . 

Or, lo ! it lies, in fragments dash'd, 

Where the lightning-gleam of anger flash'd ! (-2) 

A.las, tho' melancholy's breeze 

Move not upon my spirit's billow. 
Oh there are many wounded trees 

Beside the gently-weeping willow — 
Whose branches seem in sadness stooping 

Without a blemish in their bloom ! 
So, many a graceful form is drooping — 

With th' roses — not the thorns — of g'oom 



Perchance a disappointment grieves,— 

Perchance a nearer glimpse of life — 
Which teaches that young hope deceives 

And gilds with glory years of strife : 
1 could not, if T would, avow 

Why a strange grief should haunt me now, 
To paralyze an arm, whose pow'r 

Were weak and wary at the best ; 
But which, in some auspicious hour. 

Might yet obey my soul's behest. 
And make a wreath of glorious lays. 

My guerdon-boon the light of eyes 
Whose lustre now so brightly plays 

O'er the gallant-hearted Delta Phis ! 



But now, a band of phantom forms 

Have dimly to my spirit stole. 
While Fancy, like a Hecate, charms 

The dreary chambers of the soul, 
Where visions, like a midnight dream. 

Yet cloth'd in dark reality, 
Come clust'ring round my cloudy theme- 

The spirit of Fatality. 



DESTINY. 

Oh who with me that linger'd o'er the doom 

Of the worn pilgrim bending to the tomb. 

Or mourn'd the youth whos? silken locks had turn'd 

Dim in the flame that o'er his being burn'd; 

Or who that feels, within his tortur'd breast, 

Those thoughts which never were but half express'd — 

Whose fires consume more deeply as confin'd 

In the lone cavern of the smother'd mind, — 

Ah, who that hath not in his soul imbib'd 
One transient vision of the shrivel'd scrolls 

On which, dread Fate ! the hand of God inscrib'd 
Thy dateless mission to the world of souls ! 

But oh, how needless is this poor appeal 

To the warm bosom that has learn'd to feel, 

While language, bursting with a lightning shock. 

All idly flashes on a heart of rock. 
And yet — oh yet, the spirit of mankind — 

Tho' chill'd and fetter'd in a dull control — 
Hears in the distance, o'er the might of mind, 

The tide of Fate with mystic murmur roll : 
In ev'ry Zephyr which hath lightly fann'd 
The thoughts that venture to the spirit-land, 
There is a voice — low murm'ring from the throne. 
There are strange notes — ethereal in their tone, — 

And while they whisper, the believing eyes 
Behold a mighty form, a pow'r of pow'rs, 

Whose breath is wafted o'er the starry skies — 
Whose web is woven o'er this world of ours. 

Inexorable Fate ! our doom design'd. 
Oh where the glory of the godlike mind ? — 
And yet, methinks, a poor creator, man, 
Were less than creature in so proud a plan : 

To feel the airs, that breathing forth from heav'n. 
The sea of spirit on — right onward — urge. 

While causes o'er that sea are vainly driv'n 
Like blasts that struggle with the rolling suige — 



13 



14 DESTINY. 

\Vho.'5e billowj- bosnin, chafing to rebel. 
Convulsive rises while the storm may swell. 
But still borne on — its deeper tide obeys 
The mystic influence of the lunar rays : 
To feel the airs, that breathing from above, 
With fatal povv'r, the subject soul, impel, 
Those airs unthwarted by the God of love, 
Nor yet polluted by the Prince of hell, — 
Oh, ihis is glorious ! and our souls are one 
With burning planets that surround ihe sun. 
We hear the voice of Deity, nor quake 
Tho' its loud thunders o'er our pathway break. 
Thus ours the doom that either makes or mars 
Seraphic splendors in the land of stars. 
Then, Destiny ! the soul with pride should glow 
When wafted onward where thy breath may blow 

But if, of THEE, dark disbelief arise. 

The voice of ages in reproof replies. 
Celestial radiance, on our spirits' night. 

Gleams from the gateway that leads up to God, 
We learn of angels, from the realms of light, 

Whose bodies moulder to a kindred clod; 
And in the bosom a potential pow'r 

Appears a mirror to the form of Truth — 
Who — like Narcissus changing to a flow'r — 

Tho' slain — arises in the hues of youth: 
So, proud Opinion ! at thine umpire still — ■ 

Tho' not the breath of momentary will, 

But the deep voice of Piesent and of Past — 
The suits of reason rishtfuUv are cast. 



Long undetermin'd wore our doom 
If by a Monarch's mandate giv'n, 

And none would hope to pieice the gloom 
Which then were o'er the future's beav'n 



DESTINY, 15 



Let those who, bound in error, deem 
Fatality a phantom dream — 

That ia the darkling soul is wrought. 

A weird creation of the thought, — 
Let those, thro'out all ages, see 
xlppears belief in Destiny, 
And in all nations are divine 
The oracle and prophet-shrine. 

And men betray their faith, who wait 

To hear the low response of Fate. 



In Persia — Oh, the legends told. 

To cheer my childhood, o'er and o'er, 
The buds of beauty which unfold 

Beneath the sparkling pen of Moore, 
Oh these have taught me to adore, 

And own the spell Enchantment wreathes 
While on that rosy, radiant shore, 

A balmy gale of Eden breathes I — 
In Persian lands, in bow'rs Median, 

Fair nature is a book of doom. 
And ponder'd by the dark Magian — 

Reveals a glory or a gloom. 
Behold the Hindoo maiden haste 
To Caramania's desert waste 

And harken to the Parsee's (3) pray'r. 
As in the realms of ether heard. 

They picture on the altar's glare 
An image of th' eternal Yerd : (4) 

Oh see the Hindoo maiden there 

To learn the doom her soul may share, 
x\nd wonder at the Gheber's (3) pow'r. 

With Fate foreshadow'd to his eye 
From corses on the temple's tow'r 

When mangl'd by the vulture nigh, — 



16 U E S T 1 N y . 

VVhicli, drooping o'er the victim, tells 
His Destiny — or bright or dim, — 

If with dark Devetas (5) he dwells. 
Or with the radiant Elohim. (6) 



Bright India ! ev'ry breath that fans 
Its perfume o'er thy golden sands. 
And ev'ry ray whose tints may rest 
Upon thy soft, voluptuous breast, 
And ev'ry msect — ev'ry bird 
Whose notes are o'er thy gardens heard. 
And ev'ry pearl whose lustre gleams 
Upon the mirror of thy streams, 
And ev'ry budding flow'r that flings 
Its fragrance o'er the Zephyr's wings, — 

All — ALL are on the charmer's list 
And gifted with a mystic meaning : 

All steal a light from out the mist 
Whose veil, our future path, is screening. 

That light upon the Persian beams 
To wake a train of prophet-dreams. 



Oh hail to the clime where the gems and the roses 

Are thrown like a mask o'er the features of crime. 
Where Beauty, with Love on her bosom, reposes 

And laughs in the face of the veteran Time ! 
Where bright as a flow'r is the brow of the maiden, 

And pure as her soul is the breath of that flow'r ; 
Where the gales, that, with balm breathing odors, are laden, 

Bear a burthen still gentler from love's balmy bow'r: 
Where the roses, when, chill'd, in the North they have perish'd 

And have left the bright virgins alone in their bloom, 
Still, still by the kind hand of winter are cherish'd, 

Still bow to the bree/.e in their pride oi perfume : 



DESTINY. 17 

Where there flows not a fount, thro' the fresh verdure gushing, 

Which finds not a type in warm thought as it starts, 
Nor fruits, from the low-bending branches, are bhishing, 

That see not their image in passionate hearts. 
Then hail to the clime where the gems and the roses 

Are thrown like a mask o'er the features of crime. 
Where Beautj', with Love on her bosom, reposes 

And lauo-hs in the face of the veteran Time ! 



The strange Chaldsean, with undying hope. 

The sky still searches, tho' the charm delays, 
Till woven by the starry horoscope, 

A dreamy vision of the future strays. 
The sacred Hebrew clothes, with mystic lines, 

In secret meaning, the Cabala's signs — 
That still are studied by those black-ey'd girls 

Who tempt a Christian from his faith so true. 
And dart bright glances thro' a cloud of curls 

To light the darkness that surrounds the Jew ! (7) 



Lo, once, the follower of the Savior thought 
The scriptures whisper'd when his doom he sought, 
Till Bibliomancy, from cathedrals flown, 
E.vpir'd o'er you — St. Omer and Boulogne ! (8) 

Behold Egyptian pilgrims seek 

Ammonium and Meroe, 
Where holy shrines responsive speak 

The hidden things of Destiny. 

But look — the dove with raven wings to far Epirus flies, 
Where Acheron's infernal springs, and dark Cocytus, rise. 
Where breathing forth contagious breath, the lake Avernus flows, 
And where, of old, the forms of death from Stygian caves arose 



18 DESTINY. 

To hold communion with the dingy broods 
Beneath the foliage of Cimmerian woods, 
In whose black shadows, blacker letters spell 
The " Grove of Hecate," and the " Gate of Hell." 
But see the dove with raven jet upon her weary wings! 
[ ween that none could e'er forget the mission that she brings : 
'T i.s utter'd in her startling song, upon the oak divine, 
And countless are tjie mortal throng that seek Dodona's shrine. (9.) 



Oh bitterly the Pilgrim grieves 

To hear a gloomy tale of woe, 
As from the rustling of the leaves 

The notes are breathing sad and slow ; 
Yet, o'er his heart the warm blood rushes* 

And eager hopes exulting bound, 
When gloriously the fountain gushes 

And leaps upon the grassy ground. 
While sweet its gurgling music swells 

Melodious as a summer bird's, 
And like a tale that Childhood tells 

Half utter'd in his lau2;hino; words .' 



Nor should we pass the Delphic shrine 

Upon Aonia's sacred mount. 
Where dwell the Graces and the Nine — 

Where murmurs the Castalian fount. 
In Phocis, on that mountain high. 

Upon a dark declivity. 
His penance, lo, the Pilgrim pays, 

For there the Pythian priestess prays. 
She stands above the dingy cave. 

The Cretan priests in awe surround her, 
And glaringly her eye-balls rave 

When once the crazy spell has bound her 
.lust risen from the fountain's brim. 

But in its diamond dew she dresses — 



E S T 1 N V . 

That glistens on eacli rosy limb 
And in her wildly-flowing tresses! 

The form of Fate was shadow'd dim. 
Responsive to the Orphic hymn, 
And in those strange, mysterious nights 
That saw the Eleusinian Rites. 

Oh bright Etruria ! whose fair heari 
Beside the lovely Arno slumbers. 

How many a lyre thy magic art 
Has taught to breathe prophetic numbers : 

It was thy spirit, as it sigh'd. 

To which the voice of Fate repli'd. 
When Isis, from thy clime afar, 

Was w^ont to weave her mystic charms 
In caverns o'er whose roof the car 

RoU'd onward with triumphal arms. (10) 
The Augur, of Etruria learn'd 

To read an omen from on high. 
When Fate, with brand of lightning, burn'd 

A secret symbol on the sky, 
While with his staff and with his hood, 

Where many a kingly form was kneeling. 
The Augur on a mountain stood— 

Each emblem to the crowd revealing. 

The ancients heard with deep belief 
Their Destiny from Sibyl's leaf ; 

Nor ever did they coldly deem 
The Auspices, whose words of light 

Were wafted from the Night-Owl's scream. 
Or from the Eagle and the Kite, 

That shadow'd from their omen'd wings 
A view of Fate's secluded things.— 



19 



20 u E s T I N y . 

With dark Alrune (11) the German stray'd 
His Destiny leveal'd by her, 

And when the snowy charger neigh'd. 
She was the sign's interpreter. 

If falsehood tiiinled the replies from oracles of old. 

Why was it that the good and wise their prophet-voice controll'd ■ 

Why vaunts the church that from their shrine was heard Messiah's 

iiume 
Low uiter'd in a mystic line, befoie that Savror came ? 



Oh, even on the sacred page, the deej), prophetic verse 
Foreshadows to each coming age, its blessing and its curse : 
Jehovah waves a prophet's rod, while Destiny controls — 
Unthwarted by the breath of God — the universe of souls ! 
What oracles, of pure renown, that Destiny, suppli'd, 
When Canaan wither'd in the frown from Noaii's brow of pride , 
When Jacob, with expiring breast, beheld, in visions clear, 
The sceptre with Judea rest till Shiloh should appear; 
Wlien David, learning from the Seers, his raptur'd numbers flung- 
Melodious o'er the flood of years — from harp Jehovah strung ; 
And when Isaiah, softer yet, and sweeter than them ail, 
His prophecies, like music, let, with lowly murmur, fall. 

But search that wild, enchanting book 

Whose meek 'Amen ' the scripture closes ; 
And in whose leaves we love to look 

While hope upon its page reposes. 
When loudly 'seven trumpets 'sound. 

When ' seven mystic seals ' are broken, 
And ' seven vials' stain the ground, — 

Oh tell me what those signs betoken ! 
When comes the ' angel,' o'er whose form 

• His clothing like a cloud ' is thrown — 
As warrior, in the battle-storm, 



D E S T r N Y . 21 

Who wakes the thund'ring cannon's tone, — (12) 
And when from heav'n ' the woman ' strays — 

As in that wiJJ pvuphetic story — 
While gleaming in a robe of rays 

And with a ' starry crown ' of glory ; 
Oil then, the very bible even 
Appears an oracle ot heaven — 
Where fates are written in eternal lines. 
Or else those symbols are unmeaning signs 



Mysterious Pow'r ! 't were needless to relate 

Another instance of belief in Fate 

When, in the olden time, her plans were shown 

Half veil'd in shadows from her altars thrown. 

But now, when ancient oracles are dumb, 

And new religions to the world have come, 

When thoughts which once, with heav'n-lit beauty, burn'd- 

In awe of blasphemy — to earth are turn'd ; 

The' lovely still, prophetic Nature finds 

No worthy priestess for her myriad shrines. 



Tho' still, the Gipsies linger round 

Their councils in the dingy wood — 
Conjure dark spirits from the ground. 

Or read prophetic words in blood, 
With which they blackly dare to sign 

Their names upon the book of hell. 
And ev'ry hope of bliss divine 

To Satan for his knowledge sell. 

Our future Fate they learn to tell 
From ev'ry line whose secret trace 

Upon the op'ning hand they find, 
Or gleam that flashes o'er the face, 

Electric, from a vivid minJ 



22 DESTINY. 

But in our hearts are now the shrines 

Which once were irom the world afar, 
And oft the soul its doom divines 

While gazing on a guiding star. 
To grieve or glad the bosom — llicre 

The messages of Fate are sent. 
And ev'ry spirit seems to share 

The voices of Presentiment. 
Jn dreams they murmur of our doom — 
They whisper in the evening gloom — 

And breathing o'er the soul, confide 
The secrets, which depress or cheer 

Each angel lingering by our side 
And ev'ry demon hov'ring near. 

Oh Fate ! ?/ dreams of thee and thine 
The fancy's dark chimeras are, 

Not idly — tho' in fiction — shine 
The glories of thy wizard star. 

They weave a charm — nor light, nor brief — 

And bind us in a dark belief : 
Bright youth confess its pow'r, when gleams 

Of future o'er their path are cast 
As erst, the vivid lightning-beams 

Appear'd to hallow or to blast. 
It either fills with gladness up 

The chalice of the boy, 
Or mingles poison in the cup 

Whose vapors will destroy. 
Yet oft, ill-omen'd thoughts that fall 
On youthful hopes like burning gall. 
But strip our present joys away 
To glad a far and future day : 
So fall volcanic fires, and klll'd 

Surrounding gardens lie. 
But oh, what rays of glory gild 



DESTINY 



23 



The banners of the sky ! — 
And there are thoughts of love and liglil. 

That fling their fragrance over all 
But those who bear a bitter blight 

And feel that they are doom'd to fall. 

That dark belief in Destiny — in Doom— 

Breathes o'er mankind from childhood to the tomb. 

It reigns in secret o'er the realms of thought, 

It shapes each cause by which our fate is wrought ; 

It fills the sailor's bosom on the mast, 

And nerves the warrior to the battle-blast. (13) 

O'er the blue wave the Pilgrim's bark it swept 

Where Nature's form in naked beauty slept, 

Impell'd the tide of Saxon blood along 

And gave a glory to prophetic song ! — 

Oh, evea now, across the Prairies' breast, 

It bears a mission to the boundless west : 

It moves like mildew o'er the Spaniard's pride. 
Where brave men fought in rays of glory dress'd. 

Where panting Freedom, in the Bravo's tide. 
Has cleans'd the life-drops from her azure vest, 

And our bright banner throws its starry sheen 

O'er Palo Alto and the Palm Ravine ! 

And too, the scholar hears its voice incite 
To climb, with Science, up her craggy height : 
The orator — the statesman, — all are hers, 
With a bright cloud of poet-worshipers ! 
And THOU with them ! strange destinies were hung 
O'er thee, proud Bvron ! and thy numbers flung 
. A lava-flood of poetry and pride — 

Whose glaring glory never can subside. 
What iho' its mad magnificence had burn'd 
In virtue's breast till virtue's gem were spurn'd, 
What the' its flaming embers may destroy 



24 DESTINY. 

Peace, with contentment, and each calmer joy,— ^ 
Oh yet, as when, ^vhile raging fire appals 
And a fair temple, red with ruin, falls, 
I stand — for beauty and for grandeur thirst — 
And start at thoughts that from my bosom burst, 
'J'hus I exclaim — tho' daring virtue's curse — 
llage on, ye llames of desolating verse ! 



Sec the poor maniac — once condemn'd to pour 

On strange forebodings darkly brooding o'er : 

With frenzied eyes, he read his evil stars, 

Ere glaring wildly thro' the grated bars. 

O'er the pale culprit, in a prison's gloom, 

Fate shakes her shadows of portended doom. 

When, in his bosom's wild and wand'ring maze. 

The light of boyhood penitential pla)-s. 

Like woman's blush, whose faint and transient streak 

Will gild the wanton in her guilty check. 

Eternal Pow'rs ! as on life's ocean dark, 
Years hang more deeply o'er mine humble bark, 
1 feel that God, permitting Fate's decree. 
Divides his radiant throne with Destiny. 
From nature's bow'rs we point the child above 
And make an off'ring to the seat of love, — 
But if a sister, with that child at play, 
Drops in the lightning's death-devoted ray, — 
We think of Doom — of Destiny — whose chain 
Was forg'd coeval with Jehovah's reign. 
The kneeling mother wafis a piay'r on high 
To bless the infant with his laughing eye, — 
But when that eye with shudd'ring anguish glares. 
And when his little form convulsive tears, — 
We think of dark Fatality— whose chain 
Was forg'd coeval with Jeliovah's reign 



DESTINY. ~^ 

Tlie voice of Destiny is his 
WJiose ladder-rounds are miseries : 

Ambition ! tho' he proudly bring 
A tribute to the page of story. 

Or, insect-like, destroy his wing 
\Vlien wafted to the flame of glory ! 

The voice of Destiny is theirs 
Who breathe of love's delicious airs : 

Weird Pow'r ! whose wayward spell so soon 
Upon the youthful spirit closes, — 

If Fate does aught beneath the moon, 
It tangles up thy thorny roses ! 



What threads with strange confusion bind 
The meshes of the lover's mind. 

When kneeling to some bright-ey'd maid. 
So pure — one error had undone her ! 

As a thin stream by turf delay'd. 
The rays of heav'n from earth had won her 

Before her soul would linger long — 
its azure tide enchain'd in wrong. 

How many a spirit, like that stream. 
When once the chain of sin is round it. 

Will rise upon the winged beam. 
Or fester where corruption bound it 1 



The voice of Destiny is hers 
Whose doom, a chord of sorrow, stirs : 

Oh Beauty ! ere consumption's breath. 
In withering blight, was stealing o'er thee. 

Came not the shrivel'd hand of Death 
To lift the veil from heav'n before thee ? 



D E S T 1 JS Y . 

Ah! once, 1 might have ask'd a maid — 
But now has fled her gentle sliade : 

My cousin dear ! no more — no more 
Thy mild blue-eyes may beam so near me. 

Nor as, upon my verse, they po»i^/ A^, 
T,ook up with flatt'ring smile to cheer me. 



Oh spirit of Destiny ! hke the simoom. 
Thy breezes are loaded with pestilent gloom : 
While they breathe on our pathway — like airs from a cave- 
Hope droops in the heart as a flow'r in the grave, 
And dreams of the future are shadow'd before us, — 
As in hues of the raven, thy wing hovers o'er us. 



Yet, angel of Destiny ! like the perfumes 

That steal from the altar a Brahmin illumes. 

Thy balm breatliing roses, flung down from abovt. 

Distil in the bosom their ottar of love. 

And scenes of the future are shadow'd before us, — 

As in hues of the rainbow, thy wing hovers o'er us. 



Thou guide of our being ! tho' dim is each line 
Thine oracles utter — thy prophets divine, 
Yet enough is reveal'd in the heart's gloomy cave — 
The breath of the breeze — and the dark-rolling wave. 
For dreams of the future are shadow'd before us 
As thrown from the pinion that ever is o'er us. 



DESTINY. 27 

<Jli Brothers ! may a Fate be yours 

The brightest which the future treasures : 
Wherever starry hope allures. 

Oh there may bloom your path of pleasures ! 
May friendship, like Artesian wells 

Warm gushing from a rocky mountain. 
Forever swell — as now it swells— 

A pure and never-failing fountain ! 
May Mem'ry, with her weary wings 

Return'd from dreary scenes exploring, 
Drink gladness from afiection's springs, 

O'er the cold eartli so fondly pouring ! 



True Delta Phis ! while time remains. 

Oh ne'er in lionor's pathway falter : 
Come oft, and burn away your stains 

Upon our pure and secret altar ! 
Let Woman, with approving smile 

Upon each brow in beauty beaming. 
Be sure a heart will ne'er beguile 

On which this mystic gem is gleaming '. 
And now, Adieu ! may Fate be yours 

The brightest which the future treasures : 
W/icrcver starry hope allures, 

Oh there may bloom your path of pleasures 



N0TE8. 



(1) Pas;e hi It is said, thui al (he months of rivers, have been Inniut ilie (nssii <■'■• 
mains of evevv ■<pi'<'ie> of \)laul, grooving alons; I heir banks. 

(2) Page V2. I.alla Uookli in lier dream " saw a small giMpil bark approachins hir. 
)t was like one of those boat" which Iho >laldi\ ian islaiuhn'. anmially-'eiid adrift, a' 
the merry of winds and waves, loaded with pcrfimies. tlowers and odorifprons wood, 
as an oll'ering to the Spirit whom they call the King of the Sea." 

"NfooRK. 

(3) Page 1"). Parsees, or Ghebers : the " Fire Worshipers" of Per.sia. 
^4) Page l.j. The Parsee's God 

(5) Page 16. Demons. 

(0) Page 16. Angels. 

(7) Page 17. Perhaps it is venturing too fai upon the much abused ' poetic license.' 
to intimate thai the Cabalistic mysteries are employed to assist in divinalions, or 
that they are ever penetrated by gentler eyes than those of the learned Rabbis 
themselves. JFowever that may be, in the absence of any contrary knowledge, it. 
wonld seem natural to presnnie that the Cabala not only deals in 'secret iradi- 
lions,' bnt has also something of a proplielic character, when we consider its snpcr- 
natnial agencies, its 'mystical signilications,' its .supposed power 'to teach the 
art of performing miracles', etc., eic. 

(.^) Page 17. " This custom [divination by means of the Bible] is said to have con- 
tinued in the cathedrals of Ypres, St. Omer and Boulogne, as late as the year 171t.'' 

(9) Page IS. It is related by Herodotus, as a tradition of the Egyptians, that two 
hlfickdoves, with hnman voices, left the city of Thebes, in Egypt, one for the grove of 
nodona,at Epirus, where, from a sacred oak, it loudly proclaimed the will of heaven 
that an otacle should be established. 

(10) Page 19. "The Romans received their religious usages," etc., etc., ''from 
the Etruscans." 

(11) P.iee2<». Prophetess. 

(12) Page 21. " and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered llicir 

voices." — Rev. x : .3. 

(13) Page 23. Assuming that the belief in predetermined and inevitable Destiny, (in 
allages, tho' sometimes but latentlv, prevalent,) is neither an argnmeni for the triilh 
of Fatalism, nor in any way well founded, we must at least concede to that belief, 
the appearance of powerful control over the will, and hence the career, of both 
nations and individuals. An attentive consideration of the causes which, nppa. 
rently, led to the decline and fall of ancient empires, and to those which seem the 
occasion of tlie rapid rise of our own republic, must go fai towards convincing the. 
mind of its inlluence upon nations, while the fatalist, Napoleon, is an illustrious 
instance of the sway it exerts over individual intellect. 



